Food police ban dairy from giving island’s children full-fat milk
CHILDREN have long been encouraged to drink milk if they want to grow up big, strong and healthy.
But now one farmer has been banned from supplying the white stuff to his local school – because officials have branded it the ‘wrong kind’ of milk.
Don and Emma Dennis own the Wee Isle Dairy on Gigha, off Kintyre, where they produce whole milk from their herd of 60 cattle.
But when the local primary asked them to supply 15 litres a week, they fell foul of the Scottish Government’s anti-obesity drive, which stipulates that only skimmed or semi-skimmed milk can be given to pupils in schools. The ban is seemingly at odds with a welter of research suggesting that fats in dairy products are an essential part of a healthy diet and can actually help people to shrink their waistline.
Mr Dennis, 61, said ‘I had no intention to take on the Scottish Government.
‘Our local primary head asked if we were willing to supply the school. Currently, its milk comes from cows in Stirlingshire instead of from two miles up the road.
‘She instigated the process but then a middle-ranking bureaucrat said that on no account could this happen because whole milk is forbidden.’
He added: ‘The policy is just daft. All available evidence shows there is an inverse link with childhood obesity.
‘If you drink a glass of whole milk, hunger is satiated. Drink semi-skimmed and a child typically follows it up with a snack.
‘Every lunchtime at the school, the children are given a pudding. If the authorities are so concerned about obesity, why are they dishing out puddings while banning “dangerous” whole milk?
‘I was asking myself why the council was so stupid and then discovered it’s the entire Scottish Government that’s stupid.’
Mr and Mrs Dennis have invested £250,000 in their business, which supplies ice cream and whole milk to shops across Kintyre.
After contacting Education Secretary John Swinney, they received a letter confirming the ban on whole milk. It added: ‘This is particularly important at a time where a high proportion of our children and young people are at risk of becoming overweight or obese.’
But Robert Brown, of nutrition think tank the McCarrison Society, said: ‘Whatever is causing obesity in Scotland, it is not whole dairy products.
‘Whole milk products provide important nutrients including vitamins A,D, K and E and likely some iodine too.’
A Government spokesman said: ‘Semi-skimmed milk is proven to have the benefits of full-fat milk, including high levels of calcium with much lower levels of fat.
‘We set nutritional standards for local authorities... this includes guidelines recommending the serving of skimmed or semi-skimmed milk only.’